


A Series of Atlas Side-Quests

by Dre77



Category: RWBY
Genre: Action, Awkward Romance, Developing Relationship, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-07 14:01:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21735502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dre77/pseuds/Dre77
Summary: Now that they are officially licensed Huntsmen and Huntresses, the members of Team RWBY and Team JNR have to deal with an assortment of problems while in Atlas: from dangerous Grimm, needing to share rooms again, and just finding enough time in the day to hang out with one another.Set before the events of Volume 7 Chapter 6.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, Jaune Arc/Marrow Amin, Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie
Comments: 9
Kudos: 48





	1. A Late Night Chase

* * *

The nine-to-six curfew started just as they arrived on the ground, so with the exception of Ruby and Yang the streets of sector two were cleared of life. All of the neighborhood's residents locked themselves indoors and tried to distract themselves by finding something to do: read a book, play video games, or turn the television up to an uncomfortably loud volume. Some of the residents kept a close eye on the two Huntresses, hoping to watch a fight from their windows. 

A brave few even called out to them.

One man shouted, “Thank you for your service!”

A teenager cried out, “We don’t need you here! You Atlesian pigs!”

An older woman shouted, “Vote Hill!”

And a potentially intoxicated man hollered, “Looking good ladies!” Speech slurred, he loudly commented on their appearances to an uncomfortable degree. After hearing something specifically directed at her, Ruby shuddered a little before gripping her weapon closer to herself.

Yang, on the other hand, shot daggers and scowled at the cat-caller. Her eyes flashed red for just a moment. He got the message and in an awkward stumble closed the window.

“Sorry you had to hear that, sis,” Yang said to her with a warm smile.

“I’ll never get used to stuff like that,” Ruby sighed.

“Hey, no one should ever have to ‘get used’ to it,” she made air-quotes with her fingers, “I never have. So if… _ when _ it happens I just tell guys like that to piss off. And if it gets really bad— if they get up in my business—I defend myself,” she clenched her robotic fist. Her mind wandered back to her scuffle with the touchy bandit in Anima.

Ruby's face broke into a small smile, “If Maria were here she would have scolded that guy badly.”

Yang laughed with a snort, “She would have belted out all fourteen bad words at him in one breath.”

The girls’ voices, the clunky steps of several Atlesian Knights, and the _ crackle _ and _ fizz _ coming from a damaged holo-screen kept their surroundings from being ominously quiet. Still, there was a tension in the air that was so palpable it was inevitable that something violent would occur. That was to be expected, of course, since the pair was there to destroy a Grimm. A massive Sabyr had been spotted in the south-western region of Mantle, not far from an unplugged breach in the outer wall that separated the city from the monsters that prowled the tundra. Before arriving in the city, the duo got updated intel that the Sabyr was last seen in Sector two. 

The curious thing about this Grimm was that despite its above-average size and strength, the beast was sticking to the shadows. An ignorant person would say that it was displaying a high level of cowardice, but it would be more accurate to say that it was abnormally intelligent. By avoiding fights in public spaces the Sabyr was able to keep its presence hidden from Huntresses for an extended period of time.

But even if smart by Grimm standards, the Sabyr still possessed an innate urge to destroy. That urge compelled it to maul eleven people over the course of five bloody days. By the end of the second day, six people were found dead. Desperate calls from family members by the third day put Sectors one and two on high-alert, and a new curfew, stricter than the one already in place city-wide, was set. Additional survey drones and Atlesian knights were sent out on the fourth night to sweep the streets and alleyways. Naturally, the powerful Sabyr made quick work of the automated soldiers and puny robots. However, one lucky drone was able to send several photos of it to HQ, as well as a twenty-second long recording, before the Sabyr promptly smashed the little robot with a smack of the paw.

***

“How long has it been?” Yang asked.

The two were walking side-by-side down the street. Ruby kept Crescent Rose in its gun form in case she needed to make a quick shot. Yang remained defensive too, both fists held up near her chin.

Ruby pulled out her scroll, wincing at the sudden brightness from its glow, and squinted, “Little under an hour.”

“We’ve covered the main streets at least three times already,” Yang sighed, “Any word from the Knights?”

Ruby swiped her screen and tapped an icon that displayed a map of Sector two. There were two red dots next to each other, signifying her and Yang, and a number of purple dots, Atlesian Knights, that stood at the perimeter of the Sector. “Nope. But if they see the Sabyr they’ll alert us.”

“Right,” Yang then groaned, “Look. I know that we’re helping save lives by doing this mission. But you gotta admit, Ruby. This waiting is unbearable.”

“I know!” she exclaimed, struggling to keep her voice low, “Yesterday, Weiss and I fought Beowolves and Manticores at the launch site. It was one of the coolest things we’ve done since getting here. But today? Today is way more lame by comparison and—”

Yang immediately hushed her sister, “Wait. Do you hear that?” she pointed towards a nearby alleyway. The two stepped closer and remained silent. 

From within the darkness there was the sound of heavy breathing. It was not the type of noise one would hear from a person. But rather an inhuman sound. Something feral and dangerous. The girls took one more step. And their movement, albeit minor, was enough to startle the hiding beast into action. A set of paws began pounding against the alleyway’s pavement in preparation for a lunge.

“Back up!” Ruby warned.

They jumped out of the way and the large beast landed in the spot they had been occupying. Similar to other Sabyrs, its black body was covered in various spots of white ice. The bones that jagged across the top of its body, from its forehead to its tail, were not only frozen solid but bright blue in color. The large teeth that curved out from its mouth were razor sharp and smeared with dried blood. Though the fang on the left had seemed to have broken at the tip, leaving it a smidge shorter than its twin. Still, it was a truly terrifying creature.

Ruby began firing at the Sabyr’s face to draw its attention while Yang rushed forward and dealt a barrage against its right side, leaving several of her sticky bombs attached to it. She backed up several yards and, before remotely activating the explosives, shouted.

“Bombs are on, Ruby!” 

Ruby heard her sister’s warning and darted away in a cloud of roses so as to not be caught up in the attack.

The accompanying blast, bright and red-orange in its glow, was not enough to bring down the large beast, but it did deal enough damage to tell the creature that it would not survive if it faced the girls in direct combat. At least not without some sort of help from other Grimm. So, it turned around and ran right past Yang, sprinting down the road and ignoring shots coming from nearby Atlesian Knights—who had heard the explosion and rushed into the streets to provide additional firepower.

Acting fast, Ruby rocketed forward in another burst of red rose petals as she tried to keep on the retreating monster’s heels. She chased it down an alley, across another street, down another alley, and back onto the main road. Every several seconds Ruby would stop using her Semblance and break into a run. Then she would return to her rose petal form. This was repeated ad nauseum. While it would have been possible for Ruby to chase the beast without alternating in and out of her Semblance, using it continuously over an extended period of time would quickly drain her Aura and leave her defenseless against potentially lethal blows.

“You took off. Where’s that thing headed, Ruby?” Yang’s voice came through the communicator in Ruby’s left ear.

Ruby pressed a finger against the communicator to respond, “I think it’s heading back to the wall.”

“Could it be trying to escape?”

“I think it might.”

“Damn it!” Yang rapidly cursed under her breath like an angry sailor, almost eliciting a giggle from her sister, “You can’t let that thing get back to the tundra. Try to hold it off. I’m on my way.”

“Roger dodger.”

Once again Ruby shot forward with Semblance. However, this time when she unfurled from her speed form, her boots clapping down onto the asphalt road, she did something different. In one swift motion, she pulled out Crescent Rose, pointing it behind her, and used the scythe’s recoil to fire herself diagonally into the air. She sailed through the sky for a bit, her cape audibly flapping behind, before launching herself down at an angle with another shot from her giant weapon. As she fell closer and closer to the Sabyr, she tried to strike it down with a well placed slash on the nape of its neck, but the beast anticipated this and rolled out of the way. It continued its mad dash for the city’s outer wall.

Ruby shot herself into the air with her weapon’s recoil again. She flew over the Sabyr and landed in front of it. With one glare at the beast, her eyes briefly shining, it began to take slow steps backwards, loudly growling at the red-and-black clad Huntress. 

Using the recoil from another shot, Ruby darted forward and used the momentum to deliver a powerful slash across the Sabyr’s face. A roar of pain came out. It swept at her with its front left paw, but she back flipped over it and landed, albeit awkwardly, on her feet. The beast backed up again before pouncing forward. Like last time, Ruby rolled out of the way and, switching her weapon to its gun form, began to fire shot after shot at her opponent’s face.

With another roar, the creature surged forward at Ruby. She used the recoil from Crescent Rose to launch herself backwards and out of its range. It chased after her and she would dodge again and again. This game of cat and mouse would go on until the Sabyr was suddenly blasted in the side by a fiery projectile.

Ruby looked in the direction of the shot’s origins and saw her golden-haired sister with one arm extended out, some smoke filtering out of the gauntlet and into the cold air.

“Quick. Go for its tail!” Ruby ordered before beginning to pump out shot after shot at the Sabyr’s face, finally breaking its boney mask and taking out one of its eyes. It shrieked in pain.

Yang ran forward in the meantime. Approaching the beast from behind and grabbing onto its tail. She gritted her teeth, concentrated, and before long felt a hot burst of energy surge through her body. Causing her muscles to tighten, her eyes to turn red, and her hair to be set aflame in a bright yellow inferno. Specks of ember literally fell from her head.

“Spin it around and throw it up, Yang!”

“With pleasure,” she smirked.

Putting force into her arms and legs, Yang began to swing the beast around. The creature snarled and growled at this but was unable to break free from Yang’s grip. Before long it was thrown high into the air. Yang unleashed a barrage of her projectiles from her gauntlets, searing the icy beast in a wave of firey pain.

Just as the creature began to fall downwards, Ruby launched herself upwards and, with a powerful slash of her scythe, beheaded the Grimm. Its head had disintegrated by the time it neared the ground, but what remained of it hit the road with a loud plop and slowly began to decay away into black particles.

As Yang’s Semblance wore off her hair settled down and her eyes returned to their original lilac color. She approached Ruby with a raised hand and the two high-fived.

“Nice toss.”

“Thanks. But that last slash of yours was really something. It _ cut _right to the point.”

Ruby giggled, “That was terrible!”

She scoffed, “Blake’s the only one who truly appreciates my work.”

“Maybe she just doesn’t want you to feel like a dork.”

Yang gave Ruby a light noogie and a hearty laugh came out of her. “Knock it off, Yang. We gotta report that the Grimm’s been defeated.”

She let Ruby go and smirked, “Hey. If I don’t find time to annoy you then what kind of older sister would I be?”

“True. Very true.”

***

“You’re back late,” Weiss remarked as Ruby and Yang entered the team’s dorm. She sat at one of the wooden desks, reading a novel. A cup of hot chocolate to her left. She picked up her scroll and waved it at them, “Don’t forget that we have these for a reason. We were both worried sick about you two.”

Yang glanced over to the beds and saw Blake asleep. The cat Faunus was not covered in any blankets, for she had protested that the ones the academy provided were far too scratchy and heavy. Despite that, Blake still appeared to be cozily asleep. 

Yang smiled at her and wondered, _ “How does her hair look so good even when she’s in bed?” _

“Sorry about that, Weiss,” Ruby replied, “We were on a pretty dangerous mission so we didn’t really have time to reply to your messages. And I guess the adrenaline made us forget to check our scrolls,” she rubbed the back of her head and smiled sheepishly.

“Hmph,” Weiss raised her nose in the air, “I suppose that’s somewhat understandable. However, the next time you two leave on a mission, so late in the day I might add, at least call me and say that you’ll be gone for a while,” she waved her scroll again but this time pointed to the time display on it, “It’s almost midnight!”

Yang stretched a bit and yawned, “We should probably get to bed then.”

“Don’t try to change the subject.”

“I’m not!” Yang said, “I really should hop into bed now. Blake and I are stuck on a supply run tomorrow with Harriet, and she hates it whenever one of us falls asleep on the job. And I mean. She does agree that it’s boring, but she still gets mad.”

“You got it easy, sis. I’ve got a training session with Marrow and Jaune for most of the day tomorrow,” Ruby explained, “And those two want to get up early for a jog. I’d be fine with that if they didn’t want to do it outside… in the cold,” she shuddered at the mere thought of it.

“What about you, Weiss?” Yang’s voice was muffled by the sound of frothy toothpaste in her mouth as she was swishing a toothbrush back and forth. She was also changing into her pajamas. Weiss was somewhat amused by Yang’s clumsy multitasking.

“Nora and I are going to be watching the outer wall until noon,” she answered, “She asked me to join her since Ren is going to be training with some of the Ace-Ops. And I would hate for her to be doing that job all alone.”

“Guess we’ve all got a full day again, huh?” said Ruby, “Maybe we should meet up in the cafeteria for lunch. Aim for one o’clock?”

“Sounds good,” Yang and Weiss said in unison.

Blake began to snore, loudly, and the others looked at her, chuckling.

* * *

**End of Chapter 1**


	2. Ren's Gift & Morning Training

* * *

While Jaune would sometimes dilly daddle before going to bed, his habits weren’t nearly as bad as Nora’s—who not only took extra long to lie down, but compensated for her deficit of sleep by drinking two cups of coffee a day. Because of this Ren frequently encouraged his teammates to sleep far earlier than was necessary. The fact that Ren was a light sleeper played partly into that too since he loathed being woken up. On several occasions, when Team RNJR was traveling on foot to Haven and had to camp in the wilderness, Ren was woken up from a plethora of things ranging from tiny noises such as crickets chirping to Jaune deciding it would be appropriate to train during the night.

Oscar, who bunked with Team JNR, woke up early everyday; his body had gotten so used to getting up at dawn in order to do chores on his aunt’s farm that he struggled to adjust to a new schedule. Because of this Oscar was also out cold before Ren even. 

“You don’t even need to ask, Jaune,” Nora held her hand up to stop him mid-sentence, “I know you’re getting up early to train with Marrow and Ruby tomorrow. So I’ll be sure to hit the hay early so that nothing keeps you up. I need to be more responsible with how loud I am at night anyway.”

Oscar, who was sitting comfortably in the bottom right bunk while reading a Huntsman magazine, immediately said, “You don’t want to sleep on hay. That stuff is not soft at all.” Nora looked at Oscar and sneered at him for correcting the logic behind her idiom. He was intimidated immediately and wordlessly returned to his magazine.

Just then Ren entered the room wearing the standard-issued Atlas Academy shorts and shirt. His hair was unbraided, falling down past his shoulders. And even though there was a rather stoic impression on his face he looked totally harmless, if not somewhat cute, as he held a pink hippopotamus electric toothbrush in one hand, and a half-empty tube of toothpaste in the other. He gave Jaune a warning before tossing the tube to him.

“You may want to hurry before anyone else gets to the bathroom.”

“Ren the sun just went down,” Oscar stated.

“It did. But I’ve been having trouble falling asleep lately.”

“Well what’s the matter?” Jaune asked.

“Oscar snores very loudly,” Ren said frankly, “Louder than anyone I’ve ever heard in my life.”

Nora blew raspberries, “Oh please. He’s nothing compared to my snores.”

“Actually, yours are rather quiet. They’re almost somewhat… cute,” Ren struggled to get the word ‘cute’ out of his mouth. His toes curled in nervousness. Should he have used a better synonym? Perhaps ‘charming’ would have been a better word. 

Nora didn’t mind the word choice. In fact she grinned at his compliment and looked down at the ground. Her cheeks were light red.

Meanwhile Oscar began to object to the accusations that he snored at all, sitting up from his bunk, but Ren quickly conceded he was just messing with him. 

Oscar pouted, and Jaune immediately reached for and gave the little farm boy a light noogie.

“Let go of me,” Oscar said in-between laughs.

Jaune grinned, “Nora’s right. You are fun to tease.”

Still chuckling Oscar said, “I’m not a baby you guys.”

“No. But you are adorable,” Nora’s eyes twinkled as she pinched Oscar’s left cheek, “And tiny.”

“Well I might actually be stuck around this height forever. I was told that the men in my dad’s family are pretty short,” Oscar explained as he broke free from Jaune’s affectionate grip and swatted away Nora’s pinches, “Although my aunt is like…. Jaune’s height. So I’m not sure which genes are gonna win in the end.”

Ren said, once again speaking in a matter of fact way, “Jaune is big and adorable.”

“Jaune is adorable!” Nora concurred, “Although you’re definitely the cutest one out of all of us, Ren.”

Ren was genuinely flattered, but on the outside he showed it with only the faintest of smiles. On that day he was trying to make sure to compliment his teammates so that morale would stay strong. Ren’s mood was infrequent lately. Sometimes he felt a sense of euphoria now that he was finally a licensed Huntsman doing the good work he had always dreamed about doing, but sometimes he also remembered Jinn’s warning that Salem couldn’t be defeated. The stress of that knowledge made it difficult for him to sleep at times.

Nora couldn’t always read Ren’s emotions, he was not a big talker and his often relaxed body language did not help in discerning his mood, but she knew him well enough that her compliment had gone through to him. 

She was also happy that he was using the pink hippo toothbrush she had bought for him. She gave it to him when they were still in Haven, three days before they departed on the train for Argus. While Nora was content with spending a generous amount of money on a gift for Ren, she knew he would best appreciate the toothbrush’s practicality and reasonable pricing. The color pink was also a favorite of Ren’s so Nora knew it fit his personal tastes as well.

Knowing Nora’s sincereness around the gift gave it a deep sense of importance to Ren. He treated it with as much care as he did his father’s old dagger, sometimes even opting to use a spare toothbrush so as not to wear down Nora’s gift. In fact, the gift had even created unintentional stress for Ren as he felt strongly motivated to give Nora something great in return. He scoured various stalls at Haven’s open markets, he checked out the gift shops at the Mistral train station, he even browsed a couple of stores in the Argus commercial district, but all to no avail. Regardless of where he went, Ren would nitpick every aspect of the store he was in, sometimes leaving before even getting near a product. 

Were his standards too high? No, Nora deserved the best gift. It was outright insensitive to give a survivor of the fall of Beacon a t-shirt from the old academy, so he steered away from those. He once saw a keychain with a tiny Atlasian airship attached to it, and while it was charming, it was something Nora would never really need since she didn’t carry any keys with her. One time Ren had almost gotten into an argument with the cashier in a women’s clothing store for not having any sort of higher-grade athletic wear—as Nora’s intense workout routines often wore through the cheaper stuff.

_Two Days Ago_

“You want to make something for Nora?” Weiss asked.

She had been approached by Ren. They were in the cafeteria with Oscar. Their other teammates were busy out on missions or sparring in one of the academy’s training rooms.

“Unfortunately I seem to be something of a fickle shopper,” he admitted.

“Why ask me for help?”

“I noticed back at Beacon that you were the one who repaired Ruby’s cape whenever it was torn or ripped apart.”

“I still do that actually,” Weiss chuckled a little, “But are you sure you want to learn how to sew? I could make it for you instead.”

“No,” he insisted, “The sentiment isn’t returned if someone else puts in the effort. It has to be a gift from me.”

“Alright then,” Weiss pulled open her scroll and opened an internet browser, “Did you have any ideas?”

“Something simple, but useful.”

Oscar chimed in, his voice garbled because he was in the midst of chewing a burger, “How about a hat?”

“A hat?” Weiss asked.

“That’s actually a very good idea,” Ren nodded, “A wool hat. . . something to help her keep her ears warm since it’s so cold here in Solitas.”

Weiss nodded approvingly, “I assume you’ll want it to be pink? It is for Nora after all.”

“Naturally.”

“I’ll text you what you need to buy then,” she typed quickly on her scroll, “Then I’ll help lead you through it. Brothers forbid you mess up and make it too big for her.”

“Thank you, Weiss. I appreciate your assistance. You too, Oscar.”

The farm boy gave a thumbs up before taking another large bite of his hamburger.

Just before they finished eating lunch Ren asked Weiss if he could give her the Lien necessary to buy all of the supplies. 

When she asked why, he replied, “I never want to step foot inside of a store alone ever again,” he sighed, “Far too traumatic an experience.”

_***_

“Ren, not you too,” Jaune bemoaned, “I’m not adorable. I’m handsome.”

“Those moms sure thought so,” Nora smirked, “Speaking of. I’m impressed that you did your hair all by yourself… unless you had one of your sisters secretly fly in and do it for you.”

Oscar asked, “Oh yeah. Didn’t you always ask them to put your hair in ponytails when you were little?”

“Warrior’s wolf tail,” Jaune corrected.

“Jaune that is literally just a ponytail,” Ren said as he began to do stretches in the corner of the room.

“I’m getting an intense sense of deja vu from this conversation. Also, when did it become ‘everyone pick on Jaune day’?” he asked.

“Hey just a moment ago I was the subject of ridicule,” Oscar pointed out.

“And actually, Nora, I didn’t cut my own hair. Blake did.”

“She did?” Oscar asked.

“Yeah. We had a ton of free time one day and so she cut my hair, Ruby’s, and then her own,” Jaune raised an eyebrow as a thought crossed his mind, “Wait weren’t you with us?”

“Nope. Weiss was the one giving my hair a trim that day,” Nora explained as she combed a hand through her hair. “Then she and I went shopping for new combat gear. I helped pick out her new earrings.”

“You and Weiss seem to get along surprisingly well,” Oscar noted.

“We like doing mundane stuff together and she’s a really great listener. She doesn’t mind if I… well . . . maybe sometimes on occasion tell a super duper long story.”

“No wonder you both agreed to sign up for wall duty tomorrow,” Ren commented. “Also maybe it is a little too early for me to sleep. I know that I’ll be spending most of the day with Vine and Elm, but I shouldn’t be so nervous to try to impress them. Perhaps I’ll meditate to ease my nerves.”

“Mind if I meditate with you?” Oscar asked, “It’s hard to be constructive when I’m not a student here or can’t join you guys on Huntsmen missions. There’s always one of the training rooms, but you need to sign up before you can use those.”

“Certainly,” Ren pointed his thumb backwards over his shoulder, “There’s an indoor green space where students read and relax. Join me there.”

“Have fun you two!” Nora grinned from cheek to cheek as they left the room, “Jaune and I are gonna stay here and talk about cute girls we saw today.”

“We are?” he asked, confused.

“Very well. See you later,” Ren forced a wide smile, gave a thumbs up that lasted too long, and left the room without another word. Oscar followed behind him.

_ The next day _

Marrow was something of a prodigy. He was one of the best Huntsmen in Atlas at a very young age. Because of this he was quite boastful at times, as such his teammates were quick to take jabs at him. And while Marrow’s semblance and weapon did make him a very formidable opponent in combat, he was still green behind the ears. Especially compared to the much older Ace-Ops such as Vine or Clover.

Still Marrow held himself up to a very high standard. So when he slowly realized that Jaune and Ruby had better jogging endurance than him his cheeks went red from envy.

“You holding up ok there, Mar?” Jaune asked as he slowed down to let Marrow catch up.

“Mar?” Ruby, who was on Marrow’s left, giggled, “That’s such a neat nickname for him.”

“No nicknames please. Especially not one so infantilizing.”

Jaune apologized immediately but Marrow held up a hand. “It’s ok. It’s ok. I suppose I’m not the most athletic member of my team. So watching you two keep up with me does sting just a itty bit.”

“Do you also get flack for being the youngest?” Ruby asked.

“Sometimes,” Marrow sighed, “Why do you ask?”

“I’m two years younger than the rest of my friends. For a time, back at Beacon, I was even treated like a little kid by my teammate Weiss. Granted I made a ton of mistakes, but it still sucked. You know?”

“Younger than the rest of your team? Guessing you skipped two years of combat school then,” Marrow noted.

“Yeah. I stuck out like a sore thumb. Even during the Vytal festival where everyone got to see how skilled I was.”

“A very petite sore thumb I might add,” Jaune teased. 

Ruby responded by sticking her tongue out at him and blowing raspberries. 

“But I don’t think either of you had it as bad as me,” Jaune said.

Marrow stopped in place. He raised an eyebrow, crossed his arms, and his tail straightened out, “Now what is that supposed to mean, blondie?”

Jaunt stopped jogging too and made eye contact with Marrow. A scorching heat spread across his cheeks and ears. 

Awkwardly, he waved his hands in front of him so as to show that he did not mean to be offensive, “No no I’m not saying I’ve had it harder than you,” he looked at Marrow’s tail and felt more guilty. He stammered, “I’m just saying that you’re really talented, cool, and handsome. And I’m none of those things. So when I got flack at school I deserved it all. And heck I mean Ruby can attest to this. I was absolute garbage when I started at Beacon. I could barely open my shield without hitting myself in the face accidentally. Oh and who could forget the time I threw up on Yang’s shoes, or when I set the teacher’s lounge on fire—”

Marrow held up both his hands and chuckled, “Stop! I can tell you’re sorry… Jaune.” He had previously misremembered Jaune’s name, calling him John, Juan, and Jim before, and never apologized for getting it wrong. So he was careful to say it correctly this time. 

Marrow also knew there was no maliciousness behind the blonde boy’s remark since Marrow had grown used to having far more terrible things said and done to him. When he was a Freshman at Atlas academy it was torture. In several instances things even got physical. Such as when a student had pulled on Marrow’s tail until it started to hurt, or when someone dumped milk on his head and then placed a dog bone in front of him. When walking back to his dorm from lunc, there was always a group of human girls who threw tennis balls at him as he passed. Marrow knew that if he ever lashed out in self-defense it would just encourage the human students to call him an ‘animal’. He complained frequently to adults around him but they seemed to shrug it off as “playful teasing”.

While Jaune had sincerely annoyed if not angered Marrow by saying he had it “bad” at Beacon. Marrow also found that it was also far too hard to be mad at Jaune for very long. There was this indescribable factor to the blonde young man that made others feel comfortable around him; he radiated a constant feeling of safety just by existing. No wonder he had been picked to be the leader of his team. He was a great person to simply be around.

Marrow had also heard some praise about Jaune’s intellect in a fight, and he wanted to see it first hand.

“Why don’t we cut this run short?” he asked them, “We’re first in line for the training room today so let’s use this time well and do some sparring.”

*******

The large blocks in the training room had been arranged in a circle around the center. Standing on one side was Jaune with his sword unsheathed. Opposite to him was Marrow with his weapon, Fetch, in his hands. An excited Ruby sat on one of the blocks with her fists clenched and a large smile on her face. Stars were in her eyes as she eagerly awaited to see how the fight would play out. She thought that Marrow’s gun-boomerang blade, hilariously named Fetch, was the coolest weapon out of all of the Ace Ops’.

“Out of fairness I won’t use my semblance against you,” Marrow shouted. A smirk was on his face and he sassily placed a hand on his hip.

Jaune smirked too, “That won’t be necessary, Mar.”

“Hey don’t… ugh. Fine. I guess you can call me that. But only you can call me ‘Mar’,” he said while making air-quotes, “Got it, Ruby?”

She shouted back, “In hindsight, it wasn’t that good of a nickname anyway,” and shrugged, “I won’t lose sleep over it.”

The battle started soon after. Marrow threw Fetch at Jaune at an angle where it would hit the wall behind him and bounce towards his backside. Jaune was ready so he rolled out of the way and began to sprint at Marrow just as Fetch hit the ground and circled back to its owner.

Marrow, not wanting to get hit, caught his weapon and pointed at Jaune. _ “Stay!” _ His voice rang out as his semblance activated, freezing the tall blonde mid-run.

While it would have been best to throw Fetch again, or let out an elemental dust shot at Jaune, the young Huntsman seemed to have prepared for that. Right before being frozen, Jaune squatted down and held up his shield, letting himself become smaller behind it.

Marrow slowly side-stepped, keeping his finger pointed in Jaune’s direction so that he could circle around and get an opening. If he moved too fast he would lose focus and his opponent would become free again, but if he didn’t move fast enough his aura would be depleted by his semblance—which required a decent amount of energy at all times even when freezing only one target. 

These two thoughts ate away at Marrow’s nerves as such he would second guess himself throughout the remainder of the match. Marrow fought at his best when following his gut. It was when he had to plan mid-fight that he stumbled. With the other Ace-Ops nearby they compensated for his weaknesses, but without them he would have no one to watch his back. Weeks in the future this would contribute to his downfall after Weiss Schnee defeats him in battle, and in the moment it would ensure Jaune’s victory. 

Throwing caution aside Marrow lowered his finger, held tightly to his weapon, and rushed forward to attack. He figured that jumping over Jaune and striking from behind would be too obviously telegraphed. So Marrow instead changed tactics and tried to circle around and hit Jaune from the side.

Jaune saw this coming and swept his leg out. The dark haired Faunus reacted and hopped over his opponent’s leg. Then moving to slash with Fetch.

Jaune raised his shield up and the clash of metal _ clanged _, reverberating throughout the large room. Marrow reared up to strike again but hesitated once he saw the emblem on the shield light up with purple color. 

There it was; another opening to attack came for Jaune.

He kicked out and hit Marrow square in the torso. Something between a pain filled _ yelp _ and an annoyed _ groan _slipped out of his mouth. Jaune then scrambled to his feet, and slugged Marrow square across the face hard enough that the impact almost caused him to lose his balance.

A frazzled Marrow took too long to attack in return, which gave Jaune the chance to back up several feet. He retracted his shield. Instead only holding out his sword. 

Peeved about the surprise blows, Marrow ran forward and he and Jaune engaged in another clash of weapons. Each individual _ clang _that rang out put Ruby closer to the edge of her seat as she cheered for each combatant with equal vigor. She was totally enthralled in the fight and couldn’t pick a favorite. She was also sure to record the match so that she could send it to Jaune. That way he could focus on what he did wrong, and emphasize his strengths. The fight was only halfway through, but Ruby and Marrow still noticed that Jaune’s fighting stance was lighter than usual. Often he stood firm and planted in one place, but in this instance he knew he had to out maneuver Marrow. For Jaune fought like a tank against this specific opponent he would lose without question.

Marrow prepared to attack with an overhead strike, but Jaune sidestepped out of the way. He then slashed at Marrow's hands, knocking Fetch out of his grip. Once the weapon clattered on ground near them Jaune kicked it away. Marrow tried to retrieve it, but was intercepted when Jaune rushed to check him with a shoulder blow.

Marrow took the hit and was sent almost flying. He rolled on his side for a bit and sprung up to his feet. He then dodged a slash from Jaune’s sword. 

Jaune chased after Marrow, always intercepting whenever Marrow tried to pick his weapon up again.

Tired of being tossed around, Marrow threw a punch at Jaune’s chest and hit him in the chest. However, since Jaune had quality armor protecting himself he shrugged off the impac and brought his free hand up—slamming it directly into Marrow’s chin in an uppercut.

Marrow hit the ground, his aura fizzling a little which indicated that it wasn’t far from breaking.

“That’s enough you guys!” Ruby shouted as she raised both her hands. She hopped off the block she had been sitting on and started to make her way over to them.

“Let me help you up,” Jaune lowered his hand to Marrow. 

He stood and locked eyes with Jaune—noticing how deep blue the Huntsman’s eyes were. They were not too dissimilar to the color of the ocean in fact. It was the kind of blue that you stared at because you weren’t sure what hid beneath the surface. Marrow was mesmerized, mouth slightly agape and his right hand still holding onto Jaune’s. They both blushed and smiled slightly.

“Good job guys!” Ruby’s voice brought them back to reality. “Marrow I think I wanna spar with you next. Hope you’re ready for me and my humble little gal Crescent Rose.”

“Uh. Sure,” he mumbled, still thinking about Jaune’s eyes, “Just give my aura some time to recharge.”

“No need,” Jaune said. Since they were still holding hands he was able to use his own aura to amplify Marrow’s. Ruby measured along using her own scroll, making sure Marrow was only brought to full charge and nothing more.

“Ok that’s enough,” she said.

Jaune stopped his semblance and let go of Marrow’s hand, albeit hesitantly.

“Thanks. And you know you did a pretty good job catching me off guards with those melee moves. You look big and soft, but you’re tougher than you look.”

“Well I had to play it smart against your semblance. It’s pretty strong—one of the strongest I’ve seen.”

Marrow blushed a little, “Thanks! That’s really nice of you, Jaune.”

Ruby cleared her throat and they looked at her. She held up her weapon in its sniper form as she tapped her foot. She thought they were ignoring her, but the duo were only being distracted by one another.

“Oh right. Yeah I’ll take you on, Ruby.”

“Good,” she ran to the other side of the circle and took a battle stance.

Jaune ran to where Ruby had been previously sitting and shouted, “Good luck, Mar!”

Ruby frowned and then faked a loud cough. “Eh hem,” she said.

“Oh. You too of course, Ruby.” Jaune made a sheepish smile.

_***_

Ruby was taking another shower since the jog and sparring matches left her sweaty. Jaune was grabbing a quick breakfast at the cafeteria. 

Meanwhile, Marrow sat in the Huntsmen briefing room. Harriet was in the row behind him, seemingly bored as she waited for her team’s leader to arrive and to start the mission briefing. Two seats over were Ren and Nora, the latter was leaning back into her seat as she slept peacefully.

Clover approached Marrow, “How were Ruby and Jaune this morning?”

“They mopped the floor with me.”

“That so?”

“Yeah. Ruby was way too fast to deal with. And Jaune, who I expected to put up less of a fight, kept surprising me with these really aggressive melee moves.”

“Well part of being a Huntsman is making sure you don’t underestimate your opponent.”

“I know that, don’t worry,” Marrow held up his hands, “I just feel like my ego is a bit bruised.”

Clover shrugged, “It’s good to be humbled sometimes.”

Marrow would have scoffed had he not been speaking to his leader. 

It was unspoken among the Ace-Ops, but they agreed that Clover was probably the most arrogant person they had ever met; he was constantly putting himself in dangerous situations and shrugging off the threats with a smirk or a wink. To an extent this was understandable, Clover was a skilled fighter with a lot of experience and a fantastic semblance. However, one day Clover would bite off more than he could chew—resulting in a potentially lethal situation.

Those thoughts ran through Marrow’s mind but he did not express any of them to his leader. So he shrugged and responded in the affirmative. That was enough for Clover so he walked back to the holographic board in the front.

The door to the room slid open and Jaune came in holding two hot mugs. He sat next to Marrow and wordlessly handed one to him. The two clinked their cups together and drank. 

One would be hard stretched to find a single person who would willingly turn down Atlas’ signature beverage—Mantle brewed hot cocoa. Even elite Huntsmen spoiled themselves with it: Winter Schnee allowed herself a drink of it once a week when she had sufficient enough down time, the Ace-Ops would share a toast when there was time for all five of them to eat together, and even General Ironwood had a cup each morning—albeit with a shot from his flask mixed in.

Jaune looked at Marrow, smiled, and then said, “Wanna spar again soon? Same day and same time next week if possible?”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“Awesome, Mar.”

Marrow grimaced, “Yeah Ruby’s right. That's really not a good nickname.”

“You should see the nickname she has for me on her scroll.”

The two shared a chuckle and then clinked their mugs together one more time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the huge delay between chapters. I'm pretty surprised the reception was so positive.... every time I got a new notification saying there was a new comment on the fic I was scared to open up the email and be hit by insults or something. 0_0  
But y'all were pretty damn nice for some reason. I appreciate it. :)
> 
> I think I'll actually try to finish this story now that I have a better idea of what the structure will be. And that. Ya know. People actually want to read it lol.
> 
> Although I make no promises as to when the next chapter will be posted, I swear on Oscar's life that the hiatus will not be over 6 months long.... again.
> 
> Thanks for reading my humble little fic. :3
> 
> Side note: here's to the volume 8 hype!!!


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